Toward an Anthropology of Dogmatism: II. Traditionalism,Modernism,Existentialism,and the Counter Culture: All in the Family

Abstract

This paper is the second in a series designed to “anthropologize” the psychology of dogmatism, i.e., to suggest that there are important cultural implications in the Rokeach concept and in certain dogmatism research findings. The series embeds closedmindedness-openmindedness within the Traditionalism-Modernism model of personality. Thus, Traditional Man is authoritarian, closedminded, dogmatic, and intolerant; and this shows itself in his attitudes toward blood transfusions and heart transplants. But, the paper suggests, Traditional Man is also someone who appreciates the analogical, the animistic, the ascriptive, the autistic, the charismatic, the communionistic, the distinctive, the dreamy, the einfuehlunglich, the familial, the fantastic, the geisteswissenschaftlich, the gemeinschaftlich, the humanistic, the idealistic, the inner creative, the intangible, the intuitional, the I-Thou, the moralistic, the normative, the personalistic, the phenomenological, the primary process, the religious, the romantic, the spiritual, the subjective, the supernatural, the verstehenlich, etc. Hence the paper suggests that Traditional Man—even in his blue-collar, hard-hat variety—may be considered to possess considerable “existentialist” and “counter-culturist” capability. The illustration is Archie Bunker of the TV program All in the Family.